Just a quick update on this topic since it has been communicated (by me, even) that FreeNAS 9.3-RELEASE would come out at the end of November. Obviously, it is now the end of November and that hasn’t happened yet, so time for a quick update!

First, we’d like to thank everyone for their involvement and participation in the 9.3-BETA cycle! Over 5000 unique visitors have checked in for the updates (and continue to do so on a daily basis) and we’ve had many dozens of highly quality bugs filed, all of which have really made the difference in our being able to find and fix issues before 9.3-RELEASE. In fact, we have fixed over 800 bugs during the 9.3 development cycle and are down to just 38 bugs blocking the release, which is why we’re slipping the release date to December 8th. We need a bit more time to fix the show-stoppers. Those bugs we don’t deem show-stopping but still worth fixing as part of the first official post-RELEASE update will have their target version set to SU Candidate (Software Update Candidate), so if you file a bug and see it in that milestone, don’t worry – it won’t make the release but it will be fixed shortly thereafter and will simply show up in the new System->Update panel.

Second, we’d also like to give all the BETA testers one last week to report any final show-stoppers so that we can make 9.3-RELEASE truly production quality, so if you haven’t jumped on the BETA train yet, now would be an excellent time to do so! You don’t have to start with the 9.3-BETA release itself, though you can certainly jump forward from there directly to the latest version using the updater, but if you’re going to start now then you might as well start with the latest nightly (on the BETA train) and simply move forward to RELEASE from there.

Again, we really appreciate all of the community involvement around this release; it’s been truly unprecedented, and I don’t believe any release of FreeNAS has ever generated this level of interest or pre-release feedback. We are greatly looking forward to a really great release, as well as being able to ship small, targeted updates using the new update system with a much shorter turn-around time and far less effort for both us and our users!

With 9.3-RELEASE just around the corner, we thought it was time to give the folks still running 9.2.1.x a little early Christmas present – an update release to the 9.2.1-BRANCH which fixes just a few strategic bugs that are nonetheless impacting folks (the ZFS memory leak in particular). All of these fixes are also in the 9.3-BETA train, of course, but not everyone is ready to jump on a BETA, particularly in production, and we don’t blame them!

This should, knock on wood, be the very last release on the 9.2.1-BRANCH and also the last 32 bit version of FreeNAS, so if you’ve got some older hardware you just have to keep using, this is the release to run!

Again, this release is intentional very minimal and attempts to fix only the most significant and impactful bugs from 9.2.1.x We hope it serves its intended user community well and gives folks on the fence the luxury of more time to consider when they’re ready to jump on the 9.3 train.

In case you haven’t heard the big news, FreeNAS 9.3-BETA was released earlier this week. We’ll let Jordan Hubbard, Director of the FreeNAS Project, explain more about it in his new State of the Union address:

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Cheers,

The FreeNAS Team

FreeNAS 9.3-BETA is Now Out

We know you’ve all been eagerly anticipating this. Some of the major changes in the FreeNAS 9.3-BETA include:

New configuration setup wizard available during and after installation.

New update manager makes it easier to apply patches and updates.

Interface tabs removed completely.

FreeNAS now uses ZFS for the boot device—this allows selection and mirroring of one or more boot devices for greater reliability.

The features of ZFS are also utilized to provide cloned “boot environments” which allow the system to be rolled back (or even forked) to different OS versions.

The boot process now uses the GRUB boot loader which supports multiple boot environments and makes it easy to recover from a failed upgrade, system patch, or configuration.

A boot-time menu is provided for selecting and booting from a specific boot environment.

New boot UI allows the user to create, rename, delete, and select boot environments as well as run diagnostics on the boot pool.

And much more…

We have a quick video summary of some of the changes in FreeNAS 9.3. For the full list of changes or more details about a feature, check out the release notes. We highly encourage the FreeNAS community to try out the beta and give us feedback so we can make the release even better. For our brave betatesters, we
are committed to making sure that you’ll be able to upgrade seamlessly to FreeNAS 9.3-RELEASE once it is available.

The Ultimate Guide to Buying a New Server for Open Source

If you are in the market to purchase new servers or will need to in the future, then download this free server guide. The knowledge you gain from this guide will ensure you avoid common pitfalls including:

Inaccurate and/or over-inflated quotes

Being sold the wrong hardware for your project

Poorly built servers

Missed deadlines

The frustrations of outsourced tech support

Install OwnCloud on FreeNAS From Scratch

DrKK, one of our more prominent forum members, created a video tutorial for installing OwnCloud on FreeNAS. As he points out in the corresponding forum thread, there are multiple ways to install OwnCloud on FreeNAS including the ownCloud plugin. His tutorial is
focused on installing Owncloud in a FreeNAS jail from scratch using lighttpd. This method gives people a bit more control over the configuration and the tutorial itself is designed to be educational. If you want to refine your BSD skills and learn, give the video a watch.

Mid-Range FreeNAS Build Pt II: Performance Tuning

In the previous newsletter, we featured a high-performance, mid-range FreeNAS build sent in from one of our readers. Brian Cunnie wrote a follow-up article about performance tuning the system for iSCSI. The post describes in detail the steps he took to benchmark the build and how he ran the
tests. It includes screenshots and charts of his results. For people looking to do something similar, this is definitely worth a read.

MeetBSD California 2014

A big thanks to everyone that came out to this year’s MeetBSD California. If you missed it, you can view photos of day 1 and day 2 on our Facebook page. We’re still in the process of editing the speaker videos and those will be
posted soon. Keep a lookout for them on the iXsystems YouTube channel. In the meantime, the slides for the talks are available online—check them out!

FreeNAS Training Classes

Have a burning question about FreeNAS? We now offer free Intro to FreeNAS classes that run every day. Classes are taught by Linda Kateley, a software educator with over 20 years of experience and a specialization in ZFS and Storage. For those of you interested in learning more than the basics, you’ll be happy to know that we also offer paid, advanced FreeNAS classes in the following
subjects:

FreeNAS Admin

FreeNAS Sharing Deep Dive

FreeNAS Hardware Architecture & Performance Basics

Fault Analysis Workshop

As of now, we offer a complimentary registration with every new purchase of a FreeNAS certified system. This free registration is good for any advanced class of your choice. The classes are fully interactive, so attendance is limited to 15 people per class, allowing for thorough Q&A with the instructor. Make sure to sign up
early—with over 6 million FreeNAS downloads, we expect these spots to fill up fast.

Upcoming Live Events

We’ll be at the following conferences. If you’re in the area, drop by and say “hi”!

If you’ve been reading about all the great things we’ve been up to and thought to yourself, “Hmm, I wish I could be a part of that”, well…now you can be!

iXsystems, the company that sponsors FreeNAS, is looking for a few good developers and QA testers to join our team. We offer competitive salaries, health benefits, stock options, a 401k, and access to a fancy-schmancy coffee maker as some of the benefits. We’re a very prominent
company in the world of FreeBSD; in fact, we employ more FreeBSD developers per capita than anyone else you can think of.

Interested? The full job descriptions can be found here. If this sounds like your cup of double-shot espresso, email Jordan Hubbard at jkh@ixsystems.com with your resume. Cover letters appreciated but not required.

Send Us Your Content

Got a FreeNAS hardware build you’re proud of? Come up with a tech tip while tinkering around in the GUI? Have a link or picture you think we should see? As long as it’s not something you wouldn’t send to your boss, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at FNsubmissions@ixsystems.com. We’re always on the lookout for FreeNAS and storage related content to feature in the newsletter and on our social
media channels.

Connect with Us

If you need help with your FreeNAS setup or would like to show off your configuration, share your plugins, or just talk with like-minded people, join the conversation on our community forums. For video tutorials, check out our YouTube channel.